F1 News
Bottas reveals reason for slow pace: 'Was driving different car to Hamilton'
- GPblog.com
Valtteri Bottas did not have his best weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix. In qualifying, he was a lot slower than teammate Lewis Hamilton and in the race, he struggled to get going. The Finn eventually had to DNF due to an unexpected tyre blowout.
After qualifying, Bottas was surprised by his pace. On Friday he was faster than Hamilton in both practice sessions, but during FP3 and qualifying his pace was suddenly nowhere to be found. The Finn finished more than half a second behind his teammate.
Bottas drove a different car than Hamilton
Bottas reveals to the Finnish website Ilta Sanomat the reason for his slower pace. "I found the reason, but I can't give you the details. My car was not quite the same as on Friday and not quite the same as Lewis'. There were some differences between the cars."
Mercedes leads the constructors' championship by five points over Red Bull Racing. "We are doing well. We have to keep it up." Bottas said the team has found new ways to go through the high-speed corners on circuits. "We've learned a lot and we've been able to tune our car better for these circuits. This has worked for us, so hopefully, that will continue in Saudi Arabia."